Robinson College News
September 2020
What's happening at Robinson and how you can join in
Daisy Thomas, Vice-President of the RCSA, comments: "The last few days have been incredibly busy trying to organise different Fresher events but I think we've pulled it off! We have been running socially distanced garden parties in household groups as well as online events every night. The Freshers all seem so keen to get to know everyone despite restrictions - the volunteer team has also been working incredibly hard and I'm so grateful for all of their help".


Reunited - virtually!
This year Robinson celebrated the matriculation of year groups 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 200, 2005 and 2010 in a virtual space. For the first time in the Robinson's history, we were prevented from inviting our Alumni to a Reunion Dinner, but were able to take the celebrations to them via a screen. The online 2020 Reunion programme included a welcome address from the Warden, Professor David Yates as well as greetings from the President of the Robinson College Alumni Association (Pegasus), Dr Stephen Trudgill. Robinson's Head Chef Gary Dougan prepared a celebratory menu and invited our virtual diners to take up his ‘Rate My Plate’ challenge to re-create his menu at home. Read more about this competition and other elements of the Reunion Day Virtual Celebrations here. We hope to be able to invite you to join us here ar Robinson for your Reunion celebrations in 2021.
Calls answered - The 2020 Telephone Campaign
This year saw a Telephone Campaign like no other at Robinson. A team of 13 carefully selected students called alumni from all over the world, not from a call room at Robinson, but from their homes. The callers really enjoyed chatting with alumni and hearing their stories from the early days of Robinson, as well as the connections and career advice they received. One of the callers, Max (Law, 2019) remarked, ‘The campaign was a first-hand experience of how Robinson helps create kind and successful people – speaking to and getting advice from alumni was something that will stay with me for many years to come’. From the feedback we have received in the Development Office, alumni have really enjoyed the calls too as we have never received so many emails saying how nice it was to talk to the callers and it was great to be able to feed that back to the call team.
The focus of this year’s fundraising was ‘Student Wellbeing’ and so far over £131,000 has been pledged in donations, of which at least £30,000 will qualify for match funding from the Harding Challenge Fund. Thank you so much! With the Harding match-funding and the very generous match-funding gift provided by one of our alumni, there really hasn’t been a better time to support Robinson’s students. There is still a way to go though to enable us to create the welfare team that could make even a bigger difference to those studying at Robinson, so if you are in the position to help this year, every gift counts and will help us to lead the way in student wellbeing at Cambridge.
Congratulations
"My first two weeks as Schools’ Liaison Officer have clearly shown me that a vibrant and enthusiastic commitment to widening participation exists at Robinson College. My involvement with outreach as an undergraduate - albeit at the other end of Grange Road - had already made me aware of this. Now I look forward to supporting such commitment further in my new role. Alongside the rest of the Admissions Team, I will be implementing outreach strategies that are both innovative and effective despite the uncertain landscape. I will be working with current, former, and future members of the College to support Robinson’s and the University’s widening participation agendas.'
If you would like to discuss Robinson’s outreach and widening participation work, or have any queries, please get in touch via slo@robinson.cam.ac.uk".


As part of the Festival programme, three of Robinson's medical alumni, Professors Wendy Barclay, Adam Fox and John O’Brien, took part in a live webinar addressing the issue of Beyond COVID-19: The Future of Medicine. Our guest speakers shared stories of their time at Robinson and spoke in more detail about their respective fields and what the future may hold for researchers and for patients. You can watch the recording of this live webinar here.

Sarah, Catherine, Norbert and Helen
Robinson College Development Office